In 2022, weeks before France’s presidential election, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, publicly urged Muslims to vote for Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen—later admitting the endorsement was made “at the request” of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Shortly afterward, the French government granted the mosque an exclusive monopoly over halal certification for all European exports to Algeria, a lucrative sector worth millions annually. Critics in the European Parliament denounced the arrangement as a breach of secular principles and a distortion of competition, highlighting how political backing for a preferred candidate was rewarded with economic privilege. The mosque’s leadership, long tied to Algeria’s government and intelligence services, has acted as a political and diplomatic conduit, blurring the lines between religious authority and foreign influence.

This Paris–Algiers model reveals a repeatable formula: a foreign government cultivates a domestic religious leader, leverages that relationship for political influence, and rewards it with exclusive economic control—all while avoiding the scrutiny applied to corporate lobbying or political donations. The United States is not immune to this dynamic. Many American mosques and Islamic centers have received substantial foreign funding from governments such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Kuwait—often accompanied by influence over religious leadership, policy positions, and halal certification monopolies recognized by those same foreign states. Because religious institutions face minimal financial disclosure requirements, these channels can operate largely unchecked. Just as Algeria used France’s halal market to secure influence, foreign governments could similarly exploit U.S. religious networks to shape political advocacy and control lucrative export certifications, merging faith, commerce, and geopolitics in ways that evade traditional oversight.

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SOURCE: RAIR Foundation